Bomb hoaxes hit Dublin newsrooms as flight threats enter fourth day
RTÉ, the Irish Independent, Newstalk and Today FM were evacuated in Dublin on Friday after emailed bomb threats, and Sky in London said it had received a security threat, as the wave of hoaxes against European aviation spread to the media. At least 17 flights were disrupted by midday, Hungary scrambled fighter jets three times, France reported four new threats against aircraft in its airspace and Prague airport said nine flights were affected. No government has attributed the campaign.
The hoaxes began with one UK–Bulgaria flight on Monday, seven planes on Tuesday and, on Thursday, aircraft departing from 16 countries: Ireland’s Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, put Thursday’s tally at 21 flights, while a Reuters count reached 27. Friday’s diversions included a Wizz Air Prague–Rome service sent to Venice, a Ryanair Lisbon–Rome flight searched by Portuguese police and a Tarom Prague–Bucharest flight escorted by Hungarian jets. The first email, sent at 07:21 on Thursday to Rome’s airport operator from an address apparently linked to Colombia’s state health service in Bogotá, claimed to come from Male State, a misogynist Russian group banned in 2021, and promised attacks on Italy’s “feminist regime”; its founder’s channel told the BBC the group “hasn’t existed for many years”. Italy’s defence minister, Guido Crosetto, called it a “strategy to increase chaos”. Ireland’s deputy premier, Simon Harris, described “a very serious and evolving situation” and said “we don’t yet know who is responsible”, with Dublin due to host a European summit next week. Eurocontrol expected 26,709 flights over Europe on Friday; a security consultant put each diversion’s cost at up to $250,000. Watch for the first arrest.